Healing at the Periphery

“This volume on Tibetan medicine in India produces a dual sense of the vastness of this medicine's past (indeed, its origins on the subcontinent and spread through the Tibetan hinterland) and the specificity of its return journeys arriving with the Tibetan diaspora. Through a palimpsest of ethnographic work, we are reminded of these practitioners' capacious ability to read the external conditions of life in the most minute of bodily disfunctions and the political, historical, social, and fiscal stakes of this task in different Himalayan contexts. This unique and scholarly collection will be of use to any scholar of comparative medical systems in the Asian context for years to come.” - Vincanne Adams, coeditor of Medicine between Science and Religion: Explorations on Tibetan Grounds

“These wonderfully detailed ethnographic studies look at ‘Tibetan Medicine’ from the peripheries and the grass roots of Indian Himalayan regions. A diverse and populous amchi medicine is here revealed as plural, embedded in communities and in history, and much valued by sick and healthy people alike. This volume promises to completely recast and thoroughly pluralize Tibetan studies and Asian medical history.” - Judith Farquhar, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of Chicago

"This volume is a valuable exercise in recording old stories and paving the way for new ones. Its impact is undeniable, as it provides insight into the transformation of the periphery into the center (regardless of whether one is at the center or the periphery)." - Chia-hui Lu, East Asian Science, Technology and Society

"A crucial contribution to the medical anthropology/sociology of medicine. . . . The volume is well-articulated and meticulously written, offering in-depth case studies on Sowa Rigpa." - Manash Protim Saikia & Himanshu Nath, Contemporary South Asia